Homesick
by ThePenguinsToldMe
Summary: The story of a former shinigami who has been ostracized from both the Gotei 13 and his own family, and what happens when a request from a young, orange haired Shinigami and his group of friends, gives him the opportunity to confront his past. Rated M for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1: Night of the Hunted

So, this is my first fanfiction. Hope you enjoy it, reviews and such are appreciated.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Bleach manga, however I do own a bottle of oven cleaner.

**Chapter 1: Night of the Hunted**

Haruki Nakamura, 5th seat of the ninth division, decided to treat himself to a drink in the local bar. His 12 months policing the Inuzuri district was almost done and he thought he deserved it. As someone who had grown up living in the 1st district, Junrinan, he really didn't enjoy having to live in the slums of the 78th district and was really looking forward to returning to the Seireitei, back to the 9th division barracks. He couldn't stand any of the people who lived here but he felt that he should try to have some fun during his last few days.

He entered the bar and scoured around for any signs of trouble, he had an agreement with the local gangs that he would stay away from them in exchange for money but they still probably wouldn't appreciate him being near them. The room was surprisingly empty, usually some illegal activities were going on in here but nothing seemed happening tonight so he started to walk up to the counter.

As he was walking he did notice something unusual; a small man wearing a hooded black cloak at the bar. He reached the bar and sat down at the far right end, his zanpaktou at his side just in case. "Hey, can I get a cup of sake?" he asked the barkeep.

"Yeah, sure" said the bartender, who looked at him with disgust.

"Yeah well fuck you too" said Haruki.

His drink came about two minutes later. said Haruki, taking a sip, "so, who's that?" he said gesturing towards the small hooded figure down the bar.

"I don't really know" replied the barkeep, "just some kid; he's been here all day. I tried telling him to get out but he just ignored me, hasn't said anything at all". Haruki briefly thought about going over and seeing if anything was wrong with the kid, but then he decided not to in favour of continuing drinking.

About an hour later he decided that it was time to go. The boy had gone a few minutes earlier, glancing over towards Haruki, unnerving him with his grey and seemingly dead eyes. He paid for his drinks and left, the emptiness of the streets outside only unnerving him more. As he was walking back to his temporary house he saw a small cloaked figure in the distance, silhouetted by the dim light of the street lamps._ 'Is that the boy, wandering the streets alone at night?' _he wondered, _'I should definitely see what's up with this kid, maybe get some reward from the parents for his return.'_

As the silhouette got closer, Haruki called out, asking the other person if everything was alright, the cloaked boy only looked up revealing his chilling grey eyes. The boy then stopped, reached into his cloak and drew a sword. _'Is that a zanpaktou?' _thought Haruki, growing more nervous and putting his hand on his own sword, ready to draw it. Suddenly a massive amount of reiatsu blasted out of the boy, blowing out the streetlamps of the entire town. Haruki could barely move from the pressure, he had never felt such a dark, dense amount of reiatsu. In a blur of blackness, the boy flashed up to Haruki and swung his sword, aiming straight for the neck.

Haruki drew his sword just in time to parry the first blow but the boy managed to stab him in the shoulder with his second attack. Haruki yelled out in pain and staggered backwards. Sensing that he was out matched, he raised his right arm, "Bakuda 25 …" he was cut off as the boy flashstepped up to him and severed the arm with which he was trying to cast the spell. Blood splattered onto the floor and began to gush out of Haruki's arm. The shock of the incident meant that Haruki couldn't even scream, he knew that he needed to get out of there or he would die.

He flashstepped up to the roof tops and began to run, _'I know this town better than him, I just need to get as far away as possible"_.The boy nonchalantly shook the blood off his sword and decided to follow. Haruki ran as fast as he could, taking all the short cuts he could, blood dripping from his wounds and the piercing pain causing him to nearly black out. He could feel the boy's reiatsu fading and thought that he might actually get away.

Suddenly, another, even larger, reiatsu appeared and began closing in fast. _"Shit, two of them!" _he panicked and jumped back onto the roofs to try and find where the other attacker was. Suddenly, a taller, but still cloaked man appeared on the roof top beside him, jumped and kicked him down into an alley way.

Haruki crashed into the ground, breaking his remaining arm and gashing his head. Blood pouring down the left side of his face, he managed to get up to his knees, only to see his two pursuers at both ends of the alley way. Haruki began to shake with terror, "WHY? WHY ME?" he screamed at his attackers as they walked slowly towards him, "wh-who sent you, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!"

"I suppose you do deserve to know the name of the people who killed you" said the man, looking straight at Haruki, revealing his own aggressive crimson red eyes, "I am Takeshi, captain of the Kariodu squad and that over there is Kyoshi, my apprentice"

"Th-the Kariodu" stuttered Haruki, "You mean you're those mercenary's that are top of central 46's most wanted list".

"Exactly" replied Takeshi "you see this isn't personal, well for us anyway. The people of this district are quite upset about how you've been carrying out you're duties and these poor people pooled together a lot of money to see you punished". Takeshi stood up and turned away, "But, as I said, for us it's just business … sorry about that" and with that Kyoshi stabbed Haruki in the chest, blood splattering onto his pitiless face.

"Are we going to move the body?" asked Kyoshi. "We don't have time; more shinigami will be on their way soon. We have to get back to the hideout". The loud muttering of a mob of people could be heard coming around the corner to inspect what was going on. "Let's go" said Takeshi as he flashstepped away, Kyoshi following directly afterwards, disappearing silently into the night.


	2. Chapter 2: Little secrets

Okay, so from now on I'm going to try and release a new chapter every Friday.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

**Chapter 2: Little secrets**

At the edge of the forest on the outskirts of North Rukongai, standing a top a wooden building concealed in the trees, Rin Imada awaited the arrival of her captain. The stern look in her face was accentuated by her blonde spiky hair hanging slightly over her amber eyes. She was wearing a knee length black robe, tied at the waist by a red belt, over her shihakusho. A strong gust of wind blew through, blowing back her hair and causing her robe to billow wildly but the expression on her face never changed. She stood, cross-armed and serious.

"You've been up here quite a while now Rin" said a very large bearded man, climbing up to the roof to join her.

"What do you want Daiki?" said Rin, who didn't look back at the man once.

"It's almost sunset, are you sure you don't want to come down and eat some dinner" asked Daiki, a slight hint of fear in his voice.

"The only reason I've been up here so long is because that bastards late" she replied, a more obvious hint of annoyance in her voice.

"He's always late, he's never been organised so you shouldn't have expected anything different this time. Just come down and relax a little. I mean, the guy they're after is a fifth seat, the captains hardly gonna have any trouble with someone like that"

"That's not what I'm worried about," interrupted Rin, "you know how unstable Kyoshi is and how bad he can get in pressure situations." She turned to face him, looking up to make eye contact.

"But we've been in that situation before and Captain Takeshi has always been able to handle it" replied Daiki, trying his best to reassure his lieutenant, although she'd probably stab him for suggesting that she needed reassurance.

"But what if this time …" she was cut off by a very fast moving man crashing into her from out of nowhere. "Takeshi, what the hell are you doing!" she yelled, punching him off of her.

"Sorry, I misjudged the distance; I was sure I was gonna land right between you two and look really awesome. And hey, refer to me as Captain!" said Takeshi, getting up and rubbing the lump on his head.

"Captains aren't 3 hours late and they don't crash into their subordinates. Honestly, Daiki would make a better captain then you"

"That's a little harsh, don't you think" said Takeshi taking off his hood. He was a reasonably tall man, although not quite as tall as Daiki, with mid length brown hair which was spiked forwards. However his most intriguing features were his aggressive, crimson eyes.

"So where's Kyoshi?" asked Rin. "He should be here any second now" replied Takeshi, taking off his coat. As he said this, Kyoshi appeared, he didn't stop or speak to any one, he just walked off into the hideout without even looking at anyone.

"How did the mission go?" inquired Rin, looking at Kyoshi even though she was asking Takeshi. "Meet me in my office after dinner; we'll talk about it then. For now let's get something to eat, I'm starving!"

_**1 hour later.**_

Takeshi and Rin entered Takeshi's office, a dimly lit room which was filled with training apparatus, most of which was broken from overuse. Takeshi walked over to the back of the room and sat at his desk. Rin followed him but stayed standing.

"So, how did the mission go?" she repeated,

"Pretty smoothly" came the reply, "the target was eliminated without any fuss and I'll have someone collect the money tomorrow."

"You know that's not what I meant, were there any complications?" said Rin, who was getting increasingly annoyed at her captain.

"Okay then, he didn't snap or anything like that," came the reply from Takeshi, leaning forward in his chair, "but he was a bit sloppy and I had to intervene. Kasumi's death really affected him and ever since then his mind has been off. We just need to ease him back into it." He leaned back in his chair again, "satisfied?" he asked, a slight smirk forming in his face. "I guess" replied Rin as a knock came on the door.

"Captain" shouted a voice on the other side of the door. "What is it?" shouted Takeshi. "We have some visitors who wish to speak with you" said the man behind the door. Takeshi rolled his eyes and Rin shouted back, even louder than the two men, "Get someone else to do it, we're busy".

"I'm sorry Lieutenant Imada, but the leader of the group, it was very adamant that they speak to Captain Takeshi." Rin raised an eyebrow in confusion,

"It?" she asked turning to see what Takeshi was going to do. He just sighed, got up and grabbed a black haori which he put on over his shihakusho. "Let's go see what _it _wants" he said as he walked towards the door.

The visitors we're waiting in the main hall of the hideout. Kyoshi was also in the room waiting for Takeshi to arrive, his floppy black hair hanging over his eyes. "Why the hell are we even here Yoruichi?" yelled a young, orange haired soul reaper.

"You really never listen do you Ichigo?" said a small black cat with a surprisingly deep voice, "I've already told you that we have far too few people to rescue Rukia on our own. So I'm going to try and enlist the help of an old friend. I mean honestly, what was your plan, to charge in and just randomly get stronger as you went along?"

"Ummm, yeah that was it, pretty much. I mean, I already survived a fight with that creepy eyed Captain with the tiny sword. Also that kid in the corner keeps staring at me."

"The Captain you fought particularly likes toying with his opponents and probably let you live for his own amusement. At your current level you wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight with a captain" said Yoruichi, jumping onto Ichigo's head to annoy him.

Just then the door to the main hall opened and Takeshi entered the room, followed by Rin. "All right, just who are these important visitors that so desperately need me?" he said as he turned to face the group of people.

The black cat stepped to the front of the group, "Long time no see Takeshi, allow me to introduce …" she was cut off by a loud yell from Takeshi.

"WHO THE FUCK LET THE CAT IN?" he shouted, backing away, with what could only be described as a mixture of anger and sheer terror on his face. "There's a rule against black cats for a reason and that particular black cat is the reason!" he said pointing his finger accusingly at Yoruichi.

"That rule is serious?" said Kyoshi walking from the corner of the room to where Takeshi was cowering behind Rin.

"What did you think it was?" said Takeshi still looking anxiously over at Yoruichi. "I just thought it was some sort of terrible joke" replied Kyoshi bluntly.

"Now come on Takeshi, we had lots of fun all those years ago" said Yoruichi, who was inching closer and closer, to tease Takeshi.

"Fun for you maybe!" yelled Takeshi, "now get out cat monster …" he was cut off by a sharp punch in the stomach from Rin.

"Would just stop whining like a bitch for a couple minutes and get over it" she said, quite clearly annoyed at her captains antics.

"Fine" said Takeshi, who was holding his stomach and wincing, "Yoruichi, come with me to my office and we'll discuss this."

"Hey, why don't we get a say in this!" yelled Ichigo, who was frustrated by the fact that they were getting help from someone who coward in fear at the site of a cat, "No Ichigo, your presence will not be necessary" said Yoruichi, walking towards the door to Takeshi's office.

"Kyoshi, you stay here and make sure they don't break anything, Rin you come with me, I want to make sure the cat demon doesn't try and play any games" said Takeshi, turning to join Yoruichi in his office.

"Captain, do I have permission to kill the orange haired boy?" asked Kyoshi, out loud and completely seriously.

"I don't know, why?" replied Takeshi.

"There's something about him, something I can't quite put my finger on, but he just infuriates me" he replied, once again out loud and serious, while squinting at Ichigo, trying to figure out what was wrong with the boy.

Takeshi turned towards Yoruichi, "Well, can he?" he asked, "No I'm sorry but this whole operation was Ichigo's idea so I think he'd be annoyed if he died here."

Takeshi, Rin and Yoruichi all turned and walked through the doorway, "As if this kid could kill me" muttered Ichigo under his breath,

"Believe me Ichigo, if you were to fight Kyoshi right now, you would die" said Yoruichi from inside the other room. This just made Ichigo even more annoyed about the situation.

Inside his office, Takeshi once again sat down at his desk, "Okay, what do you need our help with?" he said.

Yoruichi jumped up onto his desk and replied, "We are planning to infiltrate the Seireitei and rescue a comrade, Rukia Kuchiki, who has been arrested and sentenced to death."

"A Kuchiki arrested? Byakuya won't be happy with that" said Takeshi, smirking again.

"He's the one who arrested her" said Yoruichi.

"So you're planning a full scale rescue mission with just one shinigami, a quincy and two humans, I assume that's where we come in" said Takeshi dismissively.

"Yes, we need you to help by creating more distractions and confusion for the shinigami to deal with" said Yoruichi.

"That's a suicide mission, there's no way …" Takeshi gestured for Rin to stop, "How much do you intend on paying us?"

"Well I'm afraid that we have no money, this is a simple request from an old friend" replied the cat.

"Then I refuse, this mission is dangerous enough but I can't risk my men's lives for nothing" said Takeshi standing up and walking towards the door.

"It's not your men's lives I'm asking you to risk" said Yoruichi, "it's your life I'm asking you to risk."

"I need the best, only people who can take on Captains, otherwise there's no point" said the cat turning to face Takeshi.

"It's still not worth it" he said.

"Think about it, with all the confusion you might be able to find _her_ with no one noticing". Takeshi's eyes widened for a second and he turned to face Yoruichi.

"I will discuss it tonight with Rin and Kyoshi, you will have your answer tomorrow morning" he said. His sudden change of heart surprised Rin. "Very well then" said Yoruichi, who jumped off the table and made her way to the door.

As the three of them exited the room and entered the main hall Yoruichi said "When you decide to accept my offer, meet us at Kukaku Shiba's house by tomorrow"

"Very well then" replied Takeshi, his mood significantly altered by what had happened in the office.

"Come on guys, we've got to find Kukaku Shiba by sunrise" said Yoruichi as the group of humans left the building. Even after they left, Ichigo could still be heard complaining about "the creepy emo kid".

Takeshi turned left and walked down a hallway, "I'm going to travel to the Sikara Vana to meditate on this, tell the men that no one is to try and bother me for the night" he said in a commanding tone of voice. He was being very serious about this matter.

"Understood, Captain"


	3. Chapter 3: A pound of flesh

I forgot to mention in the last few chapters that any Japanese (or any other language) words and names that I use have been got from using Google translate to find cool sounding words that vaguely mean what I hope they mean.

Also I'm quite bad with Japanese honorifics so I'll only really be using them for nicknames and stuff like that.

**Chapter 3: A pound of flesh**

Takeshi was sitting at the edge of a small pond, his legs crossed and his eyes closed. His zanpaktou stood in the ground in front of him and was emitting a flow of red energy that lit up the pond. It was night time and the only other light was the dim fluorescent glow of fireflies. "Why do you hesitate, Takeshi?" asked the deep voice of a figure, perched on the rocks above the pond, shrouded in black mist.

"This mission is far too dangerous, it's essentially suicide" replied Takeshi, his eyes still closed.

In an instant the shrouded figure appeared beside Takeshi, walking on all fours but still dwarfing him, "That's never stopped you before" it said, circling Takeshi, "I believe it has more to do with what the cat said, that's what your worried about."

"That has nothing to do with it" shouted Takeshi, opening his eyes. Suddenly the shadowy figure was in his face, its bright yellow eyes the only feature that was clearly visible.

"Then why, Takeshi, don't you want to save her, to rescue her from her prison, or are you afraid to face him again?" it said, lingering for a few seconds before moving back up to the rocks. Takeshi didn't reply, he simply hung his head in frustration and closed his eyes again. The shrouded figure looked out into the vast jungle that surrounded the pond, "Whatever the reason, you should hurry up and make your decision. The wolves are closing in."

"Lieutenant Imada! We've spotted attackers coming from the North east!" shouted Daiki as her burst into her living quarter.

"Shit, how many of them are their?" she said getting out of bed and grabbing her sword.

"At least ten, and we've managed to identify their reiatsu signature, they're from the Mifune clan" he said. Rin grabbed her robe and ran out of her room and down the hallway while putting it on.

"They found us faster than we thought they would. Has the captain returned yet?" she asked.

"No, should I try and contact him and tell him we're under attack?" replied Daiki

Rin stopped running when they reached the main hall, "No, he probably already knows. Just go and tell the men to get to their battle stations and to be ready to exit through the tunnels on my orders."

"Understood, lieutenant Imada" Daiki ran the hall at the far end of the room to the barracks. Suddenly a hail of red energy balls blasted through the ceiling. Rin jumped and dodged the falling debris.

"_Shit, they're combing kido spells_" she thought while coughing from all the dust in the air. Four men fell from the sky and landed in what remained of the main hall, surrounding Rin. On the back of each of their coats was the image of a blue peony flower.

"So you guys really are from the Mifune. Central 46 must be getting impatient" said Rin as she unsheathed her zanpaktou.

"Rin Imada, former Lieutenant of squad 2, you are hereby placed under arre-" Rin jumped at the man who was speaking and slashed his throat, blood sprayed out like a broken fountain and he fell to the ground, dead. The others attacked at once, swiping at her with their swords. She dodged their blows and kicked the attacker in the middle. Before the other two could react, she flashstepped over to him and tried to stab him but he managed to block her attack. He grabbed her arm and prepared to stab her.

Kyoshi suddenly appeared behind him, silently as ever and cut his head off. "That was a bit sloppy of you" he said sheathing his sword. Rin got up onto her feet ad turned around to find that Kyoshi had already managed to kill the other two attackers without her even noticing.

"So you're feeling better now I take it" she said, dusting herself off.

"I guess. Where's Takeshi?" looking around to see if anyone of worth was trapped in the rubble.

Rin began to run down the hallway to the left. "He's still in the Sikara Vana. You go and tell the men to escape through the tunnels; I'll go find him" she shouted from down the hallway as she turned left again.

The building was collapsing around her but she kept on running towards the meditation room, that's where Takeshi would be returning to. She saw a couple of bodies of their own men on the way which meant that a Mifune was somewhere nearby. She drew her sword and remained on guard as she reached the meditation room. A bright light flashed from inside and she burst through the door.

Inside she found Takeshi, standing over the bloody corpse of a Mifune clan member who had just been stabbed in the head. "Have the men been told to flee yet?" he asked as he flicked the blood of his sword.

"Yes but the buildings collapsing, we won't be able to get to the tunnels from here" replied Rin.

"They were probably ordered to torch the place, come on follow me" said Takeshi, walking towards the far corner of the room.

"There's a tunnel in each of the main rooms which connect with the main tunnels" explained Takeshi. He then smashed his foot through the floor in the corner to reveal a narrow whole leading underground. "Quickly, jump in before the roof collapses" he said.

Rin jumped into the whole and landed about three seconds later into a pit of darkness. About 10 seconds after that, Takeshi landed, "Yeah we might want to move out of the way a bit" he said as he pushed her down the narrow tunnel, "pretty soon there's gonna be burning pieces of building falling down hole."

The fiery rubble fell to the ground with a loud crash and lit up the tunnel dimly. Takeshi went over to the pile and picked up a piece of burning wood to use as a torch. "Let's go"

About two hours later they saw the bright glow of the sunrise and they knew they had reached the end of the tunnel. Waiting in the clearing were about two dozen men and women, each of whom were battered and bruised and some even bloodied. "How many casualties were there?" asked Takeshi.

"None sir, lots of injured but no dead" said the chief medical officer.

"Excellent, every one gather round, Kyoshi get over here" he said gesturing towards Kyoshi who was lying in a tree.

"The three of us have been contracted for a new and extremely dangerous mission and I'm afraid we have get to it as soon as possible so we'll have to leave now" he said as the entire group converged on him, Rin and Kyoshi.

"Until we get back and in the event that we don't get back, I'm gonna take Rin's advice … and appoint Daiki captain" he said pointing towards the large bearded man. "He will lead you to the base just outside west Rukongai, and until we get back you have to take orders from him.

"All right, let's get moving" boomed Daiki, ushering the group down the road, "if you are uninjured please help support those who are."

Takeshi, Rin and Kyoshi turned in the opposite direction and began running, "So you've made your decision have you?" asked Rin a slight smile creeping on to her face.

"Yeah, and we've got to move quickly if we want to get there in time" he said also smirking now.

"Where exactly are we going?" asked Kyoshi, who was feeling a bit out of the loop.

"Home."


	4. Chapter 4: Closer

**Chapter 4: Closer**

"I just don't see why we're waiting so long, we don't even know if they're coming" said Ichigo Kurosaki, who was waiting with all his friends outside an unusual house with giant stone arms holding up a sign saying "Kukaku Shiba". It may have been in the middle of nowhere but it sure as hell wasn't subtle. Ichigo was getting more and more impatient every minute he had to wait for these mercenaries.

"Oh believe me they're coming, Takeshi wouldn't miss this opportunity" said Yoruichi who remained completely calm and confident that their help would arrive, "he just still has problems with being on time."

Standing before the group was Kukaku Shiba, a relatively young looking woman, with a curvy figure and only one arm, and her brother Ganju, a large, ugly man who seemed to be a bit annoyed with the whole situation as well.

"Sister, I really don't think we should be helping these Kariodu guys, I mean they may not be part of the Gotei 13 anymore but they're still shinigami" said Ganju, talking in an as loud and brash way as possible. "You know what I say, once a shinigami scum, always a shinigami scum"

"What was that Ganju?" said Takeshi, appearing behind the surprised Ganju, "I didn't quite catch it." Ganju slowly turned to face Takeshi. Despite them being roughly the same height, it still seemed like Takeshi towered over him.

"Hey, Captain Takeshi, long time no see" said Ganju, a terrified expression on his face, as Takeshi walked past him towards the main group. Ganju only now noticed that both Rin and Kyoshi were right behind Takeshi, following him to the group.

"Rin! It's been ag-" Rin punched him hard in the stomach and he collapsed in a heap.

"Alright, let's get this thing started, I assume we're using the sky cannon Kukaku" said Takeshi, Ganju keeling over in the background.

"Hell yeah we are!" replied Kukaku.

"Yes, alright" replied Yoruichi, "but first let me introduce you to everyone"

"You've already met Ichigo Kurosaki" she said, jumping onto the orange haired shinigami. Kyoshi was staring at him with slightly murderous eyes.

The cat then jumped from Ichigo onto a black haired boy with glasses, wearing all white Quincy robes, "This is Uryu Ishida, the last quincy, Orihime Inoue and Sado Yasutora" she said jumping from Uryu to a young girl with orange hair and then to a huge Hispanic teenager.

"Hello" they all said in unison.

"Hey, my name is Takeshi, this is Rin and this is Kyoshi" said Takeshi pointing to his squad mates, "We are the top ranking members of a mercenary group, which I set up, called the Kariodu. What we do is eliminate troublesome hollows, ones which the Gotei 13 doesn't care about, in the Rukongai in exchange for money from the villagers. For a greater amount of money we will sometimes track and execute corrupt shinigami, who have failed to do their duties and what not. This means that unlike you guys, we have plenty of experience fighting shinigami." He gave a quick glance at Ichigo, "I am only going to give this warning once, do not attempt to fight any of the captains. If you are forced into confronting one, go for the kill, do not show mercy or try to take him out without hurting him, it simply won't work."

He walked over towards the main group and gave another quick glance at Ichigo, "Although, staying out of fights maybe more difficult for some of us."

This remark clearly offended Ichigo and he shouted, "Well if you're so great, then I'd like to see you try and use one of these!" He grabbed a green crystal orb which Kukaku was holding and shoved it into Takeshi's face.

Takeshi took it and held it in one palm. "What, you mean this?" he said as a green bubble of energy surrounded him. "I mean, I'm not great with reiatsu control but even I can do this"

"OH COME ON! Why does everyone find this so much easier than I do!" shouted Ichigo, lamenting his failure.

"Hey, Kukaku, you wouldn't happen to have any pork buns would you?" said Takeshi. Everyone gave him a funny look. "What? I'm hungry"

**2 HOURS LATER**

Captain Gin Ichimaru walked slowly into the Head Captains room, his eyes closed as usual and a smug smile on his face. His whole demeanour unnerved anyone he'd ever had contact with. He was surrounded by all the other captains standing in two lines facing each other and they were all looking at him.

"Wow, a meeting of all the Captains of the Gotei 13 just for me, you really shouldn't have" he said in a slightly sarcastic voice, "but I see that the captain of the 13 squad is absent, still sick is he?"

"Don't try and weasel your way out of this Captain Ichimaru" said an incredibly large man with spiked hair and an eye-patch, "how dare you let the ryoka escape alive, you should have had no problem killing them."

"You mean to say that they're still alive, Captain Zaraki?" asked Ichimaru, putting a confused look on his face.

"Don't fucking try and play dumb, you would have been well aware of whether or not you had killed them!" shouted Zaraki

"BOTH OF YOU, BE QUIET!" yelled Head Captain Gennryusai Yamamoto, "I think we all know the reason why this meeting has been called; Captain Zaraki has made this very clear. However the biggest problem is that you acted on your own without back-up and then you failed. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Gin turned to face the Head Captain, "I really have no excuses, it was an honest mistake."

"Excuse me Head Captain but I have some information regarding Captain Ichimaru which I would like to give" said a kind looking man with soft brown hair and glasses; Captain of the 5th Division, Sosuke Aizen.

"Oh really now?" said Gin, his smug smile returning to his face.

Suddenly a bell was rung, "INTRUDERS ALERT! INTRUDERS ALERT! SOMEONE IS ATTEMPTING TO ENTER THE SEIREITEI!"

Everyone in the room was surprised; it was too soon for a second invasion attempt. Suddenly Zaraki ran out without with an excited yell.

"Damnit, where the hell is Yachiru," he said looking for his lieutenant, "she had better not be playing in Kuchiki's house again."

Back in the Head Captain's room, the meeting had been adjourned. Most of the Captains had left and there were only three people left, Aizen, Gin and young Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya, who was just leaving and couldn't help but overhear the other two's conversation.

"Saved by the bell I guess" said Ichimaru, his creepy gaze fixed on Aizen.

"I guess, but I would suggest that you watch your back Ichimaru" said Aizen, the contempt in his voice only showing slightly on his kind face.

"Oh no Captain Aizen, you're the one who should be watching his back" said Gin menacingly as Aizen away from him, towards the door.

Up in the sky above the Seireitei, a giant green sphere of energy was crashing into the barrier surrounding it. Bolts of energy were shooting off everywhere from the collision and the noise was deafening. Inside were the Ryoka, struggling to maintain their ball of energy.

"Just keep concentrating, we're almost there!" shouted Takeshi. Suddenly the ball got stronger, as Yoruichi jumped off Takeshi's head and onto the ball to add her reiatsu to it. This gave the ball just enough strength to make the final push through the barrier.

"Alright, we made it!" yelled Ichigo, Throwing his hands in the air.

"Oh you fucking idiot …" said Takeshi, as the ball of energy burst, "Quickly everyone, grab onto each other." They had only managed to grab the person nearest to them when suddenly there was a massive shockwave and everyone was scattered and shot down away from each other, into the Seireitei.

Back on the ground, Kenpachi Zaraki had stopped running and was watching what was happening. "Shit, they split up. Now I need to figure out which one's too go and find." A horrible grin appeared on his face, "This is gonna be fun."

Meanwhile, Takeshi and Kyoshi were flying through the air towards the ground. Takeshi managed to get himself upright before he hit a roof and tried to slide down it on his feet. However, he was still going too fast so he just crashed through the roof tiles and rocketed off the roof and into the ground.

"Bakuda 37, Tsuriboshi" shouted Kyoshi, a turquoise net appearing below him to catch him. He jumped out of the net and walked over to his Captain, who was slowly getting out of the crater he had created.

"You should have made one for me as well" he said, rubbing his head, "that was really painful."

Kyoshi looked at the crater and said, "You should just learn how to make one yourself."

They both looked down the road and saw that two men were walking down the road towards them. "Well, look who it is; I haven't seen that face in over 60 years" said the man on the left.

"Oh yes, I guess you could say that we're very … lucky" said the man on the right, the sun shining brightly of his bald head.


	5. Chapter 5: Sleepyhead

THIS WEEK ON HOMESICK, WILL THE AUTHOR EXPLAIN ANY OF THE AMBIGUOUS STORY APECTS WHICH HE GAVE A FLEETING MENTION IN THE PAST FEW CHAPTERS? WILL HE START DESCRIBING STUFF IN MORE DETAIL? AND WILL HE EVER JUST CHOOSE A SHIP FOR THE STORY AND JUMP ON IT? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT!

**Chapter 5: Sleepyhead**

"You know what, Yumichika?" said the bald shinigami to his very effeminate friend, "I'm feeling so lucky that I think I'll do my lucky dance."

"If you have to, Ikakku, go ahead" said Yumichika, "but which one of us gets to fight him"

"Well I'm the higher ranked officer, so I think …" right in the middle of Ikkaku's sentence, Takeshi rushed in at lightning speed and punched him in the torso, sending him flying down the street. Takeshi then twisted on his right foot and kicked Yumichika, too surprised to react, in the face, smashing him into the wall beside them.

Kyoshi went over and inspected the two bodies, they were completely unconscious. "You didn't have to knock them out cold" he said, no actual hint of remorse in his voice, "we could have got information on this Kuchiki girl from them."

"Don't worry, I'll just find my contact in the Seireitei and get the info from her" said Takeshi, dusting himself off after that little skirmish.

"Your contact? Are you sure she'll know or that she'll even give you the information?"

Takeshi stopped and pulled a reasonably large cloth bag from his shihakoushou. "She knows about pretty much everything that goes on here and this bag of sweets is to make sure she tells me"

Kyoshi was puzzled, "A bag of sweets? Are you sure that's enough?"

"Don't worry; I saved one of the pork buns that Kukaku gave me in case she's in a picky mood." This only left Kyoshi feeling even more confused.

"Look, just leave the information gathering to me and you just try and find the others" said Takeshi.

"How?"

"Well, if you a massive crowd of shinigami running after someone, it's probably Ichigo." With that he turned around and flash stepped away.

'_Why, of all the people I could have ended up with, did I get stuck with the one who can't fight?" _thought Rin. She had just saved Orihime from a very aggressive 5th squad member by sneaking up behind him and slicing his throat. It was a quick, easy kill but Orihime still objected to the use of lethal force.

"You could have just knocked him out or something" she said, still not quite realising how much danger she was just in.

"His sword was raised and he was about to kill you, I couldn't take the risk" replied Rin as she shook blood off of her short sword. "Follow me, we'll try and find out where this friend of yours is being held." She started running, sticking to the shadows and Orihime followed, trying to mimic Rin's movements and make as little noise as possible.

Ichigo managed to clamber out of his crash site, only to stand up and find that there were roughly two dozen shinigami crowding around him. "We found one of the ryoka!" one of them yelled and they all drew their swords and charged.

"Shit" said Ichigo. He then took his gigantic sword off his back, the cloth still sheathing it and used it to smack the first line of attack out of the way. He turned right and ran, pushing through the shinigami, knocking them away with his sword. _'Of course I'd land in the middle of every single shinigami in sou society'_

Ichigo kept running and only stopped when he had to block an attacker and beat him away. He turned left and ran down a narrow alley way only to see another group of shinigami running down the street at the end of the alley. Instead of running straight into the enemy, Ichigo decided to climb the walls and onto the roof to evade his pursuers.

He crouched down and peered over the edge of the roof to find the first group of shinigami running past. It seemed that he had lost them. He decided to think of a plan, _'Okay, first thing to do is find one of the others, I just hope it's not that creepy kid I find first.'_

"Hey."

Ichigo turned to find that Kyoshi was standing behind him, looking down on him. "What the hell are you doing here!" he said wondering how he hadn't noticed the boy.

"Takeshi told me to find you" he said while looking over the roof to see if anyone was nearby. He was shocked by the amount of shinigami in the area but as usual didn't show it.

"He said to find me specifically?"

"No, you were just the easiest to find"

Takeshi was hiding in the shadows, supressing his reiatsu. He had finally found a clear enough area, in street near the eleventh squad barracks and all he needed to do now was dispose of the two shinigami slacking off nearby. He snuck behind them, slammed their heads together and they were down before they even knew what was happening. Now he just needed to signal to his contact. Hopefully she wouldn't be too far away.

Takeshi brought his hands to his mouth and made a loud guttural roar, almost like a lions roar. He repeated this two more times to make sure. It was a bit over the top for a signal but he had been using it for years and it was the only one she would recognise. _'Now, I just need to wait."_

"Takikitty-chan!" shouted the shrill, delighted voice of Yachiru Kusajishi, Lieutenant of the eleventh squad, jumping over the rooftops and landing on Takeshi's shoulder. "What are you doing here in Seireitei? Usually you're outside when I see you"

"Yes I know, I'm here on a mission and I need your help but you can't tell Kenpachi" he said, trying to remove her from his shoulder. She evaded him and moved to the other shoulder.

"I dunno, Ken-chan wouldn't like it if he found out I helped you and didn't tell him" she said with a quizzical look.

"What if I gave you a present?"

"A present, YAY! What is it? What is it?" shouted the happy little girl jumping off Takeshi's shoulder and running around him.

"A bag of your favourite sweets" said Takeshi, taking the small bag from his robes. Yachiru snatched them from his hands and started eating.

"Okay, I won't tell Ken-chan that you're here" she said while stuffing sweets in her mouth.

"What about the help I need?" asked Takeshi, getting increasingly frustrated.

"That'll be extra" said Yachiru with a gleeful smile. Takeshi sighed and pulled a single pork bun from his shihakoushou. She grabbed it swiftly and began eating it with the sweets. "Okay, Takikitty, what do you need?"

"Well, we're searching for a prisoner, Rukia Kuchiki; do you know where she is?" said Takeshi, relieved to be final getting somewhere with her.

"Oh her," said Yachiru, "she's in the big white tower." She pointed to the Repentance cell, atop a hill to the north.

Takeshi was alarmed at this information, "The repentance cell?"

"Yep"

"She's being executed," he said, his voice taking on a far more serious tone, "this is going to be even more difficult than I thought."


	6. Chapter 6: Haunted

"_I see your face in the glass, with branches growing from your mouth_

_you wear the moon like a halo; you wear the night like it's your coat_

_and you're always laughing, but you always look afraid_

_I think we're haunted_

Hands against my eyes

I hear you crying in your sleep

I think we're haunted"

**Chapter 6: Haunted**

Rin was stalking an unsuspecting shinigami from the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Orihime was just behind her and was determined to do well this time, and prove herself to Rin. The shinigami they were following stopped to rest at a nearby wall and Rin knew that this was their opportunity. "It's time, do you remember the plan?" asked Rin in a hushed voice.

"Okay, so I run out and attack to distract him, meanwhile you will loop around and attack from behind. Then you knock him out and tie him up and when he comes to we find out where Rukia is" said Orihime, her finger on her chin, like it usually is when she's thinking.

"Exactly," said Rin, "I'm going to go around now, wait for ten seconds and then attack." Rin left before Orihime could say anything back. She hunkered down in the shadows, waited the ten seconds in the shadows, ran out and charged at the man.

"Koten Zanshun, I reject" she shouted and an orange spark flew from her hair pin and shot at the shinigami. He turned to see what was happening and Orihime slowed down and hesitated as soon as she saw his face. The shinigami saw Tsubaki flying at him and smacked it straight back at her.

She just caught the little man, his wings were badly damaged and he was coughing a lot. "I'm so sorry, Tsubaki" she said, beginning to cry a little.

With his last few words he said, "You stupid little girl, why did you hesitate!" before going back to her hair pin in an orange flash. Orihime looked up and saw the shinigami walking towards her, his sword drawn. He was smiling.

"I'll get a nice promotion for capturing you, Ryoka, maybe even up to 10th seat" he said. Just in time, Rin flash stepped behind him and hit him over the head with the hilt of her sword. He fell to the ground in a heap.

"That was too close again" she said, sheathing her sword. "You really aren't suited for combat are you?" she turned towards Orihime, who was hanging her head.

"I'm really sorry Rin, I'll do better next time." She looked up to see Rin appearing in front of her. Confused thoughts raced through her mind as Rin punched her hard in the stomach. These thoughts faded to blackness as she hit the ground, unconscious.

"No, I'm sorry, Orihime" Rin said looking down at the young girl, "there won't be a next time." She walked over to the shinigami and tied him up with rope. "Don't worry," she said picking the girl up, "I'll drop you off at the fourth division, they'll take care of you."

Rin walked away from the street, towards the fourth Division Barracks. On her shoulder she was carrying Orihime and behind her she dragged the captured shinigami.

Kyoshi and Ichigo were running along the rooftops, jumping from building to building, ducking down whenever a group of shinigami came near. Ichigo ran up closer to Kyoshi and asked, "So, where are we headed? Do you guys know where Rukia is?"

"Takeshi is finding that out right now," replied Kyoshi.

Takeshi appeared right beside Ichigo, running with them for a couple of minutes before Ichigo realised and fell over from surprise. "Wait, when did you get here?" he asked loudly.

"You didn't tell me she is being executed" said Takeshi, ignoring Ichigo's question.

"Yoruichi said it wouldn't exactly be a good bargaining tool" replied Ichigo, lifting himself from the ground and dusting himself off. "What difference does it make, anyway?"

"Well for one, the security surrounding a prisoner on death row is far tighter" he replied, looking straight at Ichigo, "and now we have a time limit, which we don't even know."

He then walked over to the edge of the roof, "Look, I'm going to bring you close and then point you in the right direction to her cell. I've got other things that I came to do, and I intend to do them before our time limit is up." Takeshi jumped across to the next building and began running, swiftly followed by Kyoshi. Ichigo stumbled a bit and then followed as well.

It took them three hours to make it to the long row of white steps that led up to the to the prison area and the repentance cell. The sun was setting, giving the air a orangy, red glow. "Alright, so if you just go up those steps and keep going straight and you'll reach the Repentance cell" said Takeshi pointing to the giant white stairway that seemed to go on forever. Ichigo looked up the steps, despairing slightly at the thought of having to climb them.

"Wait" said Ichigo, "there's someone there, on the steps." Walking down the steps, towards them was a lone shinigami with red, tied up hair. Suddenly Ichigo's eyes showed only anger and determination. "RENJI!" he shouted.

"You know him?" asked Takeshi.

"Yeah" said Ichigo as he unsheathed his sword, "we fought a while back in the world of the living. His name is Renji Abarai"

"I've heard of him, he's only a lieutenant, this shouldn't be a big problem" said Takeshi calmly. He drew his own sword. Kyoshi did likewise.

Renji reached the end of the steps and stopped walking. He took out his sword and pointed it at Ichigo. "It's your fault Ichigo, it's because of you that Rukia has to die" he said. This statement clearly annoyed Ichigo as he tightened his grip on his sword.

"ROAR! ZABIMARU!" yelled Renji and his zanpaktou took on a very distinctive, saw like shape. However, before he could attack, two more shinigami appeared right on either side of him. Both of them were also lieutenants. One was a tall man with mid length blond hair which hung over one eye. The other was a short girl with brown hair that was tied in a bun.

"Izuru, Momo, what are you doing here?" said an astonished Renji.

"You didn't think we'd let you take on three Ryoka by yourself" said Izuru. He took out his sword and yelled, "Raise your head, WABISUKE!"

His sword changed to an incredibly odd shape. It was now bent at ninety degree angles in two places, forming a square loop at the top. Momo, the girl, took her sword as well.

"You've got to learn to trust you friends in these situations" she said with a smile on her face which quickly turned to a serious expression as she released her zanpaktou. "Snap, Tobiume", her sword changed, growing into a wide double edged sword with two or three extra, thin blades at the sides.

"Okay, three lieutenants still shouldn't be too much of a problem" said Takeshi but Kyoshi didn't hear him. He was stuck, his sword lowered, staring at the girl on the other side. His mined was blocking out everything else and he could only mutter a single word.

"Kasumi?"


	7. Chapter 7: Safe and Sound

So, when I first started this I told myself that I wouldn't care whether I got many reviews or not but I would really appreciate just one review that wasn't my own sister trying to troll me. Thanks.

**Chapter 7: Safe and Sound**

Kenpachi Zaraki was pissed off. He'd finally found his damn lieutenant, only for her to lead him dead end after dead end. How was he ever gonna find this Ryoka if he kept just kept running around in circles? "Are you sure this time? Cause if it's another dead end …"

"Of course I'm sure Ken-chan, if you wanna find the ryoka you'd better turn right now" said Yachiru, hopping further up onto Kenpachi's shoulder, a gleeful smile on her face. Kenpachi turned right at the nearest corner and by some miracle it wasn't a dead end but they were still nowhere near where they wanted to be.

"See, I told you I was right" said Yachiru.

"I guess" replied Kenpachi, "wait a minute, what the hell is going on here!" At the end of the road, lying face down on the ground was Kenpachi's third seat, Ikkaku Madarame and beside him, half way through a wall was his fifth seat, Yumichika Ayesegawa. Ikkaku woke up startled, stumbled to his feet and said "Captain?" with a mixture of terror and bewilderment before falling back down again.

"What the fuck happened to you guys?" asked Kenpachi, inspecting the state of Yumichicka and once satisfied that he wasn't dead, walked over to Ikkaku.

"We had a, uh, run in with our former third seat" said Ikkau.

"You mean the brat's here aswell, this just keeps getting better!" exclaimed Kenpachi. Yachiru suddenly jumped up onto his shoulder.

"So you met Takikitty as well baldy!" she yelled, "Ooh, you got beat pretty badly baldy."

"SHUT UP! AND I AM NOT BALD!"

"Wait a minute" said Kenpachi, looking over at Yachiru, "you knew that Takeshi was here this whole time and you didn't tell."

"Oops" she said as she sunk back down his shoulder. "Wait, Ken-chan, I know where him and the other ryoka are going" she popped back up, hoping to make Kenpachi happy again.

"Oh really?" a disturbing smile crept onto Kenpachi's face.

"Yeah, they're going to the big white tower to rescue that girl" she said.

"Well I guess we know where we have to go then" he turned around to Ikkaku, "don't worry, I'm sure some squad four guys will be around sometime soon, see ya." He turned and ran, heading straight for the repentance cell.

"It's your fault Ichigo," said Renji, raising his sword and pointing it at Ichigo, "It's because of you that Rukia has to die." Ichigo tightened his grip on his sword, Renji's word were getting to him, making him angrier.

"Ichigo" said Takeshi trying to get through to him, "Don't make any rash decisions. Charging in angry and getting killed isn't going to help."

Ichigo ignored Takeshi's words and rushed at Renji, who swung his sword, firing its whip-like blade at him. Their Swords crashed together and Ichigo was stopped in his tracks, trying to push Renji's sword back. Izuru and Momo appeared on either side of Ichigo and were about to strike him down.

"Shit, come on we've got to help" said Takeshi gesturing to Kyoshi, and flash stepping away. Kyoshi snapped out of his trance and followed. Takeshi appeared beside Ichigo and just managed to block Izuru's blade with his own. The surprise made Momo stop her swing and Kyoshi appeared in front of her, sheepishly avoiding her eyes.

"You just have to make things more difficult don't you" said Takeshi to Ichigo, a smirk on his face as he pushed Izuru away. He turned to Izuru and raised his sword, "alright, let's do this" he said and his sword fell out of his hand and crashed to the ground with a loud clang.

"What the hell?"

"Everything I strike with Wabisuke gets twice as heavy, that zanpaktou is unusable now" explained Izuru.

Takeshi raised his fists and set himself into a fighting stance, "Congratulations, you've just managed to make this fight last a little longer than it was going to."

Ichigo used the distraction to push Zabimaru away and charge at Renji. He swung his sword down but Renji dodged to right and it crashed into the ground. Renji then retracted Zabimaru in such a way that it cut right into Ichigo's left shoulder causing him to fall to one knee.

"Damn!" Ichigo shouted, blood splattering from his wound. He stood up and swung his sword at the same time. Sparks flew as the two zanpaktou's clashed. Renji overpowered Ichigo, pushed him away and attacked with Zabimaru, sending Ichigo crashing into a wall on the other side of the clearing. Renji walked over purposefully, intent on finishing this off.

Meanwhile, Kyoshi was easily dodging the fireballs which Momo was firing, but his sword was still lowered and he wasn't counterattacking. "Why don't you attack?" asked a bewildered Momo, "Are you making fun of me or something?" she charged again, attacking straight on this time, forcing Kyoshi to raise his sword.

"N-no, o-of course not" he muttered, trying desperately not to look at her as he pushed her away. He clenched his eyes shut, _'She's not Kasumi!' _he thought, _'Kasumi's dead! Pull yourself together'_. He opened his eyes to find that she was no longer in front of him. He turned around to find her, standing there, palm open, casting a kido. "Bakudo 61, Rikujoukourou."

Six beams of yellow energy suddenly surrounded him, closing together and entrapping him. He desperately jerked around, trying to escape while she stood there, her sword pointed at his forehead. "You are under arrest Ryoka."

"No … Kasumi … please don't" his head was down and he was shivering from fear.

"But my name's Momo, not Kasumi …" she said with a perplexed look on her face, "wait, what is that?" she said pointing at his hands. There were black, vein like lines growing slowly from his fingers up his arms. His reiatsu was also changing, becoming colder and darker; it felt like you were being engulfed by the while Kyoshi was just standing there, still trapped, shaking his head and muttering, "Please don't … please don't … please don't."

This sudden change in Kyoshi's reiatsu caught Takeshi's attention. _'Shit, not now' _he thought as he easily ducked under Izuru's attack. He twisted on his heal and kicked Izuru in the jaw causing him to stumble back. Takeshi jumped at him and delivered a mid-air kick to the side of the head, sending Izuru flying across the clearing and knocking him out.

Takeshi flash stepped over to behind Momo and swiftly hit her in the back of the neck. She fell to the ground straight away and her Kido disappeared. Takeshi put his hands on Kyoshi's shoulders and bent down so he was at eye level, "It's alright, I'm here for you" he said softly, "everything's alright."

Kyoshi, looked up, the whites of his left eye had gone completely black, and the black veins were creeping up his neck. "She … Kasumi … I couldn't …" he stuttered, tears flowing down his cheeks. Takeshi bent down further and held Kyoshi tighter.

"I know" he said, "don't worry; it's not your fault, it's okay." The veins slowly began to recede and his eyes started changing back to their normal colour. Once the veins were all gone Takeshi stood up again but he kept one hand on Kyoshi's shoulder. Just then a massive amount of reiatsu exploded out at the other end of the clearing. Takeshi turned around swiftly to see what was going on.

There, standing in the middle of the rubble was Ichigo, reiatsu pulsating out in all directions, blood dripping from a cut just above his right eye and from his shoulder wound. Renji had stopped walking and was standing opposite him, "I'm surprised you can still stand after that last attack" he said as he prepared to swing his sword again, "Let's finish this, Ichigo Kurosaki!"

He swung, his whip-like blade flying through the air at Ichigo. Ichigo raised his left hand, opened his left hand and caught the blade, stopping it dead.

'_What the fuck? He caught it!'_ thought Renji, frightened of what he was seeing. Ichigo raised his sword high, releasing more and more reiatsu, shattering Renji's sword shattered from the force. "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!?" yelled Renji.

"I found my resolve" said Ichigo as he swung his sword down, a blast of blue energy shooting from the edge of the blade and striking Renji. Takeshi and Kyoshi just watched as Renji managed to stumble his way out of the giant crater in the ground that the attack had left, his blood red hair no longer tied up and hanging over his shoulders, and stagger over to Ichigo. He grabbed Ichigo by the shirt and fell to his knees, blood pouring from the gaping wound on his chest.

"It's your fault" he said.

Ichigo looked down at him, sadness on his face, "I know" he replied.

"Please, you have to save her" he fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood. Ichigo looked up, towards the white tower in the distance.

"I know."


	8. Chapter 8: Dance, Fucker, Dance

**Chapter 8: Dance, Fucker, Dance**

Ichigo woke up to the foul smell of sewer water in what appeared to be a dimly lit tunnel. "Where am I?" he asked to no one in particular before realizing that Takeshi was standing above him.

"You're awake, good, it's just morning and I'm not entirely sure how much time we have left" said Takeshi, turning and walking down the tunnel. Ichigo clambered to his feet, put his zanpaktou on his back and followed.

"So where exactly are we?" he asked.

"We are in the tunnel system that runs underneath the Seireitei; I used to play in them all the time as a kid so I know their layout pretty well" explained Takeshi. He stopped when they reached a ladder on the wall. "Kyoshi is up on the surface making sure that everything is clear."

He put one hand on the ladder and stopped, "By the way, do you know what this is?" he pulled a white skull mask, with crimson stripes around the left eye hole out of his shihakoushou, "It looks like a hollow mask to me. I found it on your shoulder when I was bandaging your wound; I think it took most of the blow"

Ichigo took it in his hands and inspected it, "no, I've never seen it before" he said with a perplexed look on his face. Takeshi swiftly grabbed the mask off Ichigo.

"Well then, if it doesn't have any sentimental value, I'm throwing it away" and he chucked it into the flowing river of sewage and it was swept away.

"Hey, I wanted to keep that as a good luck charm"

"No, now shut up and follow me" Takeshi climbed up the ladder, moved the roof tile and jumped into the same clearing as the day before. Ichigo followed, climbing out of the hole and looking around the area. The ground was littered with scars from the battle the day before and Kyoshi was walking towards them.

"It's all clear" he said when they reached each other. He was showing absolutely no signs of the break down he had the day before.

"Okay, so here's the plan" said Takeshi, "You two are going to go up those stairs, get to the repentance cell and rescue the Kuchiki girl, once you've done that get back down here and get into the tunnels we'll meet up there afterwards. Hopefully you won't run in to much resistance."

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" asked Ichigo.

"There's someone else I need to find but I'll need a distraction, which is you guys. Who knows you may even meet some of the others on the way" and with that he flash stepped away, rushing off into the distance, as if he didn't want to talk anymore.

"Well that was strange" said Ichigo, turning and walking towards the steps. Kyoshi looked off to where he could sense his Captain's reiatsu was, _'Why won't you tell me what's going on?' _he then turned to follow Ichigo up the steps.

They reached the top and began to run down a corridor of pillars, "So, how exactly do you plan on escaping once you've rescued her?" asked Kyoshi.

"Ummm …"

"You didn't have any plan for that did you?"

"Well my original plan was that Yoruichi would think of something but he's not …" Ichigo stopped, a look of sheer terror on his face as a massive amount of reiatsu began to weigh him down. It was definitely a Captain. He searched around for the source but couldn't find it anywhere and Kyoshi searched for it too, drawing his sword, expecting their mystery captain to attack at any moment. This reiatsu was unlike anything he'd ever felt before, far greater than even Takeshi's.

"Keep running!" shouted Ichigo, desperate to get away from the reiatsu. Kyoshi followed, keeping an eye out incase, whoever this was tried to attack from behind.

They ran and ran and ran, through narrow streets, with tall building towering all around them, but the reiatsu never got any weaker, never seemed to get further away, it just stayed, ever present and violent.

"Ryoka," Ichigo turned to see the gigantic Captain of the 11th squad, Kenpachi Zaraki standing behind him, smiling viciously, "I've come to fight you to the death."

"Don't worry Ichigo" said Kyoshi "There's only one of him, we can do this." Ichigo drew his sword and held it out in front of him. Kyoshi was about to release his sword when, in the distance, he felt another incredibly strong reiatsu.

'_Fuck' _he thought_ 'another Captain'_ he lowered his sword and turned to Ichigo. "There's another captain on his way here" he said, "we can't take two of them, I've got to go and find Takeshi."

"I guess I'll have to stay here and fight this guy on my own then"

"Just hold out long enough for me to get back" he said before flash stepping away.

Takeshi had started rushing back to them the minute he felt it, the spiritual pressures of a second captain on their way to Kyoshi and Ichigo. He sensed that they were already encountering Kenpachi Zaraki and he wasn't too worried, the two of them could just about survive a fight with him. But then he felt the reiatsu of Captain Byakuya Kuchiki closing in on them, if he didn't help they would certainly be killed.

He was running as fast as he could through the streets and alley ways until he reached the clearing where they had battled the three lieutenants and he stopped. There running down the steps was Kyoshi but Ichigo wasn't there, _'shit, what's happened' _he thought. He ran towards Kyoshi and they both stopped in the middle of the clearing.

"Where's Ichigo?"

"He's still up there with the Captain with the eye patch. I told to hold him off until I could find you" explained Kyoshi, panting little, "There's another captain nearby ..."

"I know, that's why I ran back here" interrupted Takeshi, "you go back and help Ichigo with Kenpachi, I'll go and keep Byakuya busy"

"Okay" said Kyoshi, and with that they ran, flying up the steps with sonic speed and turned in opposite directions, off to battle.

Captain Byakuya Kuchiki was walking down the narrow pathways leading to the repentance cell, on his way his way to the fight between the ryoka boy and Kenpachi Zaraki. _'That imbecile Zaraki will undoubtedly fail to kill the boy'_ he thought to himself, sure that he would have to be the one to finish this whole business with the ryoka himself. He could sense the fight from where he was, Zaraki seemed to be winning but he could take no chances, the boy had to die here.

There was also something else he could sense, a faint spiritual pressure circling him, whoever it was was probably trying to supress their spiritual pressure and sneak up on him. "Show yourself now", he said in an authoritative tone, "hiding won't be of any use to you now that you've lost the element of surprise"

"Fuck," whispered Takeshi under his breath, as he jumped from the rooftops above, _'I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this'_ he thought to himself as he was falling. He landed, making sure to keep his distance, "So, how ya doin?" he asked looking up to meet the captains stare.

"A ridiculous question" replied Byakuya, he was sure he recognised the man but couldn't work out where from "Allow me to finish this quickly". He began his senka technique, flash stepping to Takeshi's back and preparing to strike him with his zanpaktou. However, as he unsheathed his blade he found himself standing face to face with Takeshi, the blade of his sword resting lazily on his shoulder.

"That wasn't very nice" he said, a smirk flashing across his face. Byakuya face remained emotionless. He unsheathed his sword and slashed upwards in one smooth movement. Takeshi parried the blow and flash stepped 20 feet away, "You wanna take this seriously from the get go then" he said holding his sword out in front of himself with both hands, "Fine."

"Tear them to pieces, Kiba Moju!" shouted Takeshi. His sword began to shine with bright red light and he pulled it apart into two separate swords. They were both mid length, slender swords with black hilts that were taped to his forearms with black cloth. "Let's do this"

Takeshi charged, stabbing forward with his left hand sword. Byakuya blocked and struck downwards to counter and Takeshi parried with the same sword. He then shifted his weight to his right and slashed upwards, wounding Byakuya across the chest.

He could feel the sting from the cut but refused to show any pain. He attacked swiftly, hoping to catch his opponent of guard. He swung his sword horizontally aiming for Takeshi's chest. Takeshi dodged underneath the strike, turned on the spot and kicked Byakuya in the side. Takeshi charged again, forcing Byakuya on the defensive with a frenzy of blades flying too fast for the eye to see.

They locked swords and crashed into a wall, Byakuya managed to knock Takeshi's swords away for a split second and thrust his own blade forward aiming right between his opponents eyes. Takeshi somehow managed to move his head out of the way and countered by kicking Byakuya back into the wall.

"Hado 33 sokatsui" said the captain, a huge blast of blue energy bursting from his hand catching Takeshi in the shoulder as he tried to dodge, forcing him back.

"A Shikai that takes the form of twin swords and increases the user reflexes and reactions to inhuman levels," said Byakuya, both of the fighters getting to their feet, "fighting you at close quarters would be foolish, Takeshi Mifune"

"So you finally remember me Bya-chan" said Takeshi resting his swords on his shoulders again, "I was beginning to worry that you'd forgotten all the fun we had with Yoruichi-sensei".

"Fortunately," continued Byakuya, ignoring his opponents remarks," I do not intend on fighting you at close quarters".

"Scatter, Senbonzakura".


	9. Chapter 9: All the Bones

**Chapter 9: All the Bones **

Kyoshi was looking down from a top a tall building as Ichigo slumped to the floor, blood pooling around his lifeless body and Kenpachi Zaraki turned to walk away. He had arrived just too late but he could still feel Ichigo's fear in the air, it hadn't been a very close fight. "Well, that was fucking boring," he could hear Zaraki say, "might aswell go and find the brat."

'_I don't know why Takeshi thought you were different. I knew that what happened last time was just a fluke' _he thought, waiting for the captain to leave so he could collect the body. _'I guess the mission's over.' _Suddenly a huge wave a reiatsu exploded out of Ichigo, knocking Kyoshi to the ground.

"What the fuck?!" said Kyoshi as Ichigo slowly got up, his sword resting on his shoulders. "His wound … It's stopped bleeding and his spiritual pressure, it's immense."

Kenpachi turned slowly, his sword down by his side and a puzzled look on his face, "I was sure that I killed you." Without warning Ichigo charged and slashed down, badly wounding Kenpachi's shoulder. Blood sprayed from the wound and stained the entire left side of his haori a dark crimson. Ichigo didn't let up and slashed horizontally, intending to cut the giant man in half but this Kenpachi managed to react and put up his sword to block. However, the force behind the swing was too strong and Kenpachi was sent crashing into a nearby building.

Kyoshi knelt at the edge of the roof, watching what was happening before him with incredible surprise, "He's winning … easily!"

"Oh I wouldn't say that" said Yachiru who had somehow managed to sneak up on Kyoshi and was now sitting beside him.

"Oh, it's you," he said in a monotone voice, hiding how surprised he actually was, "why would you say that?"

"Because Ken-chan's got that look in his eyes, he's having way too much fun to lose right now." As Kenpachi stepped from the rubble of the building, both Ichigo and Kyoshi could see that the puzzled look on his had been replaced by one of sheer pleasure. He was enjoying himself, and it was terrifying.

"Shit" said Takeshi as the blade of Byakuya's zanpaktou shattered into tiny pink shards of sword, floating in the air. He flash stepped into the air behind Byakuya, twisted mid-air and slashed. Byakuya ducked just in time, his kenseikan getting sliced in two, twisted and swung the hilt of his sword, sending a flurry of pink blades at Takeshi. He flash stepped away, the blades just missing.

"So, how's the whole head of the Kuchiki clan thing going?"

"Another useless question, are you trying to stall me or are you just still as annoying as you used to be?" asked Byakuya, his blades gathering around him, as if waiting to be let loose.

"Maybe it's a bit of both." Byakuya swung his hilt again and the blades were released. Takeshi sprinted to one of the tall buildings surrounding them and began to run as fast as he could up the walls, the blades in pursuit. He suddenly turned and flash stepped to behind Byakuya and attacked. However, his slash blocked by a wall of more flower petal swords.

"Tell me, why has a traitor like you returned?" said Byakuya, turning to face Takeshi.

He just smirked and replied, "A certain someone has employed me to help rescue a member of your family."

Byakuya lowered his hilt and closed his eyes, "so you have come to once again trample on my honour."

"Again?"

"Hado 4, byakurai" a bolt of blue lightning fired from Byakuya's fingers, hitting Takeshi in the chest and sending him flying backwards. "The day you abandoned the soul society you severely damaged the honour of the four noble clans," he raised his sword hilt above his head, the blades floating in the air behind him, "and as such, that day you damaged my honour aswell." He swung his hilt and a sea of blades rushed towards Takeshi.

Byakuya stopped himself in surprised when he found the tip of Takeshi's sword was pointed at his neck. Takeshi clothes were in shreds and his arms were covered in blood, he hadn't attempted to dodge the blades, he had run right through them. They both stood there, the thousand blades floating around them, Takeshi's face covered in blood and fury.

"Never say that again," he said, blood dripping from his forehead into his eye. He took his blade away from Byakuya's throat. "No matter what Takuro tells you just know, that day I did everything I could to protect your pride."

"What do you -?" before he could finish an explosion of yellow reiatsu erupted into the sky in the distance. It was so strong and dense that it was distorting the atmosphere and even moving some of the buildings.

"What the hell is that?!" said Takeshi worriedly as it was coming from the same area where Kyoshi and Ichigo were. The pillar of yellow energy disappeared but the power could still be felt and suddenly one of the tall buildings around where the energy was coming from crumbled, as if it had been cut in half.

"It seems that Zaraki has released his full power. It is pitiful that he had to go so far but at least the ryoka boy will die here."

Takeshi desperately tried to sense both Kyoshi and Ichigo reiatsu but it was almost impossible to sense anything through the denseness of Zaraki's spiritual pressure. But then, suddenly he felt it, Ichigo's reiatsu was there and surprisingly it was huge, much more powerful than it had been before. The scariest thing however was that it kept on growing. _'What the hell is going on?! Ichigo's reiatsu, it's almost as powerful as Kenpachi's!'_

"What is happening? Who is that massive reiatsu coming from?" said Byakuya, sweat rolling down his face.

"It's Ichigo" replied Takeshi, shocked from what he was sensing "I don't know what happened to him but that's definitely Ichigo."

Byakuya turned to where the spiritual forces were coming from, "Impossible, there's no way a mere human could have reiatsu on par with a captain." Suddenly there was a massive explosion in the distance as the two enormous reiatsu's clashed, creating a shockwave and knocking down all the surrounding buildings. Then there was silence, nothing moved for a couple minutes, as if in awe of what had just occurred.

"Both of their reiatsu's have disappeared," said Byakuya, turning back to look at Takeshi, "they must have killed each other. I'll have to place you under arrest now Takeshi Mifune."

"Sorry to interrupt," Takeshi and Byakuya both looked up to find Kyoshi sitting up high on the window sill, "but Takeshi, we've got to leave."

Takeshi nodded, "What's the situation with Ichigo?" he asked.

"He's in pretty bad condition, but Yoruichi is taking him to some place called the hideout. She said that you'd know what that meant."

"Okay why the hell didn't you help him?" asked Takeshi.

"I thought he could handle it" Kyoshi deadpanned.

"Are you serious? Fine, just start heading towards the Sokyokou; I'll finish up here and catch up soon" ordered Takeshi and Kyoshi silently flash stepped away. Takeshi turned to Byakuya, whose eyes were wide open with shock, sealed and sheathed his sword and said, "Sorry Bya-chan, I guess we'll have to continue this somewhere else."

"W-was that …?" he stuttered.

"Yes, he is." Takeshi left, disappearing without a trace and Byakuya just stood there, shocked and confused, his flower petals floating idly in the wind.


	10. Chapter 10: Eyes wide open

**Chapter 10: Eyes wide open**

There were only two shinigami standing guard outside the repentance cell and, even though they were relatively low class officers, they were on edge. A few hours ago they had sensed that Captains were fighting the Ryoka nearby and it had only recently ended. The amount of power being thrown around was terrifying but they knew that if the Captains failed and the Ryoka came for the prisoner then it wold be up to them to stop them.

"Are you sure we shouldn't call for help?" asked the first guard, he was a short, diminutive man with shaggy black hair and brown eyes. As of yet, he had no seated rank. "I mean there are only two of us and …"

"Exactly," cut in his the other guard who was actually a seated officer and felt that this made him the leader of their team, "if we go for help then one of us has too leave our post. If the Ryoka do come we'll have a much better chance if there's the two of us" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Suddenly Rin appeared from out of nowhere, grabbed the seated officers face and smashed him against the walls of the tower. The other guard panicked and swung his guard's staff wildly. Rin ducked under and swiftly delivered three punches to his stomach, chest and face. She dusted her hands off and walked over to the tower's door as he fell unconscious.

"It doesn't matter" wheezed the seated officer, barely managing to get back onto his knees, "there's no way you can break into the cell, and we don't have the key."

"I know this city far better than you do" she turned to him, and pulled the large wooden key from her robe. His widened with surprise.

"H-how did you …?"

She walked over and bent down to his level, "The storage room in the sewers," she said, "I went there as soon as I found out she was in the repentance cell."

She gave him a quick strike to the back of the head, knock him out definitely this time, and put the key in the lock. There was a loud, hollow click, and the door began to slowly rise. In the middle of the giant tower was a small girl, even smaller then Rin, dressed in a plain white Robe.

"Rukia Kuchiki?" asked Rin, stepping into the tower.

"Yes" replied the girl.

"We've come to rescue you …" suddenly, a blade slashed by both women, cutting Rin's cheek and imbedding into the walls of the tower. Rin slowly turned, eyes wide open, to find the owner of the blade was on the other side of the bridge. Captain of the 3rd division, Gin Ichimaru.

Ichigo woke up, lying in a makeshift bed, in a dark empty room, to the sound of Takeshi and a woman having a mixture of a conversation and an argument. He's incredibly groggy and couldn't quite hear what they were saying properly but he could just Takeshi saying, "Are you sure …?" and "Only Kisuke …"

He tried sitting up but was hit by sharp pain in his abdomen and fell back down. "Looks like he's up" said Takeshi and he and the dark skinned, purple haired woman walked over to where he was lying down.

"Who's this?" asked Ichigo, gesturing to the woman.

"It's me, Yoruichi" she said, "who else could it be?"

"Oh alright" he nodded before realising what had just been said, "Wait a minute! You're supposed to be a cat!" he shouted, sitting up and gesticulating wildly.

"Cat's don't talk, Ichigo" she said dismissively, "and stop moving about so much or your wounds will open up."

"My wounds?" looked down and saw that he was heavily strapped with bandages, "Woah!"

"It could have been worse" said Takeshi, bending down and reaching in too his shihakusho, "you have been cut in half if not for this." He pulled a damaged hollow mask from his robe, the same hollow mask that had been found on Ichigo earlier.

"I fairly sure I threw this away" he said, "and yet, here it is again, saving your life this time."

"Almost like a lucky charm" said Ichigo, grinning.

"Don't get any Ideas," said Yoruichi, a serious look on her face, "it's still a hollow mask and we're still getting rid of it." Takeshi stood up and snapped the mask in two and walked over to the entrance to the room. He opened the wooden door and light flooded the room, blinding Ichigo for a moment, and Takeshi just casually tossed the mask fragments out of the door. Ichigo lifted himself to his feet and shuffled over to the door to have a look. He was shocked to find that they were atop a sheer cliff that seemed to do down for at least three hundred feet.

"How the hell did we get up here?!" he said looking frantically around for a stairs or something to explain how they climbed up.

"We used this" Ichigo turned to find Yoruichi holding a small bone wand with what looked like a bird skull on top, "you just pump reiatsu into it and it let's you fly."

"Really, that's pretty cool …" suddenly there they all felt a huge reiatsu in the distance, coming from the repentance cell. Ichigo recognised it instantly; it was cold and empty, completely devoid of feeling or purpose. Gin Ichimaru.

"It's that captain I fought at the gate!" he shouted

"You're in no condition to fight, right now Ichigo," replied Takeshi, "we can't let you go."

"But Rukia's there aswell!" he shouted "she's in danger."

"Pay a bit more attention to the situation Ichigo," said Takeshi, a stern look on his face, "Rin's there aswell, she won't let anything happen to Rukia."

"I can't take that risk" said Ichigo. He quickly grabbed the bone wand from Yoruichi's hand and crashed through the door. He pumped reiatsu into the wand and a huge bone wing sprouted from the top. Yoruichi and Takeshi just watched from the edge of the cliff as Ichigo flew above them.

"I guess we've got to go help him now" said Yoruichi, turning and walking to the back of the room.

"I guess …" said Takeshi.

Gin slowly retracted his sword, the edge of the blade cutting Rin's cheek tortuously. Rin was shocked, wondering how he had managed to sneak up on her. "Well now," he said as his sword reached its normal length, his perpetual snake grin on his face, "we can't have this. It would mess up everything." Rin pushed aside her initial fear and drew her sword.

"Back away Ichimaru" she said adopting a defensive stance. She was worried, the narrow bridge meant that it would be more difficult to dodge his sword when he extended. She decided to get in close to try and negate this problem and charged, flash stepping up to him and slashing down. He parried the blow and she continued her assault, slashing and cutting frantically but Gin was blocking the attacks with ease. They locked swords, Gin pushing down on the smaller woman, leaning in close.

"Quite the feisty one, aren't you?" he said. He kicked her in the knee, knocking her off balance and he went for the opening. There was a frenzy of stabs and slashes, as Rin struggled to keep up with the Captain. _'Stay away from the tip of the sword' _she kept saying to herself, but she could barely see where the sword was. Suddenly, Gin's movements slowed. He slashed at her torso but she blocked it away from her, leaving him wide open. He grinned as she countered, slashing his side and flash stepping away, creating distance between them.

'_Something's wrong,' _she thought,_ 'he didn't even try to block that.'_ She turned to find Gin, in the middle of the bridge, still grinning at her and his sword pointed in Rukia's direction.

"Shit!" shouted Rin.

"Shoot to Kill, Shinsou."


End file.
